


Nicotine

by anonfoxer



Category: No Fandom
Genre: Canon Trans Character, Drug Use, F/F, Recreational Drug Use, Romance, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, trans female/cis female
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28367355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonfoxer/pseuds/anonfoxer
Summary: A tale of two girl's who met on a cold Chicago night, and the tale of breaking an addiction.
Kudos: 6





	Nicotine

**Author's Note:**

> As with most things I write this is episodic. ish.   
> Each chapter will be done whenever I'm done with it.   
> Enjoy.

Ashley stepped outside, slamming the door shut behind her as she reached into her pockets. She placed a cigarette between her lips and flicked her lighter open, taking a slow breath. A couple of quick pulls, and she eventually put her lighter away with a sharp click of its lid, and she took a long drag. She glared down past the devil amber at the end of her smoke, trying her damn best to start drilling a new hole into the street. 

As she relaxed and put her hand to her side, the smoke mixed with her breath as cold Chicago air ripped it away, making sure to remind her to pull her jacket a bit closer. Her shoulders fell, and she fell back to the brick wall behind her. The street lamp flickered, as it tried to keep the pitch black of the night sky away, and Ashley sighed. It had been a long night, and she knew that she was going to have to go back inside.

Her friend had told her that this party would be different. There would be people she knew, there would be more things she liked. It wouldn’t be as crazy as last time. So when Ashley walked in expecting to see 5 people crowded around a table ready for a new week long campaign of D&D, she very much wasn’t prepared for what had to be 50 people in the space of one smart car. She should really stop trusting Kyle when he brings her out to go do something. She takes another drag, hot smoke fighting off the glacial wind that cut down to her bones.

A bit further down the street, another woman finds herself desperately trying to keep her hood over top of her head as she makes her way to her apartment. Her efforts weren’t really working, and she was beginning to wonder if she was even going the right way anymore. But without many other choices she presses on, eventually finding herself beneath a struggling street lamp, and tucked into a convenient doorway to catch her breath.

She also looked up long enough to realize she was right next to another woman who looked more than just a bit startled. The issue with taking smoke breaks for Ashley is that you always run the risk of running into new people. Which wouldn’t be so bad if Ashley wasn’t so damn awful at talking.

“Pretty awful night, huh?”

Ashley nodded slowly, doing her best to not stare at this poor woman as she carefully takes her cigarette out of her mouth. As she blows the smoke over her shoulder to be blown away, she manages a redundant, “Yeah.”

“I guess it could be snowing, right?” The other woman says with a friendly laugh.

How the hell do people do this normally?

Ashley took a longer pull, hoping that it would calm her down enough to speak, and maybe even give her a personality for the next minute or two. But her hands still shook, and she still didn’t know what to say.

“I...guess you’re right...Ha ha…,” she said, the awkwardness of her speech drenching the atmosphere with a tension that’s normally only found in terribly written fanfiction.

But this woman, she still smiled, and even kept talking.

“I’m Chloe,” she says, brushing her hair out of her face, “who are you?”

“Ashley,” she says, quietly.

“That’s a pretty name,” Chloe smiles.

There’s finally a moment of silence. What’s the harm in trying to keep this going? Chloe can clearly do it, so Ashley should be able to, right?

“...So why are you walking out here this late?” Ashley asks, taking a drag afterward to keep herself from trying to correct anything.

Chloe huffed, pressing her shoulder to the wall.

“Late night at work, boss wouldn’t let me go home because I was the last person on the shift,” she explained, “so I was the lucky gal that got to close up.”

“That doesn’t sound fun,” Ashley said.

“Oh no, I love having to close up massive freezer doors that weigh more than a car! That's everyone’s idea of a good Friday night, right?” Chloe laughed, that confident and...social smile flashing itself again.

Ashley decided to laugh along, “I love Friday night manual labor!”

Chloe giggled, throwing her hair back again.

“So, what has you out here? You live here or something?”

Ashley gave a stout, singular laugh, saying “Oh hell no. No, no, a friend of mine told me we were going to a quiet party.”

“And you’re out here smoking?”

“His and my ideas of a quiet party vary significantly,” Ashley sighed, “and smoking helps me calm down when I’m overwhelmed.”

Chloe, for the first time, didn’t smile. Instead, she grew more concerned as she said, “But it’s bad for you. It’ll kill you someday, won’t it.”

“With any luck,” Ashley chuckled, glancing over to see Chloe hold back a laugh herself.

“That’s no way to be thinking,” She said, the concern coming back like it never left.

Ashley nodded unconsciously, sighing again.

“That’s probably true.”

“Have you ever tried quitting?”

“Yeah but...I don’t know, my motivation never sticks,” Ashley says, letting her hand fall to her side, the last ember of the cigarette slowly fading out, and fizzling as she pressed it into the brick. She reached a hand for her pocket, ready to grab another one to hopefully make it out of this little meeting with some dignity, before having a third to go back inside. But she froze up when she felt Chloe grab her arm, glancing down and across to eventually make sudden eye contact.

“Will you walk home with me?” Chloe asked.

“I-I...I-I mean, uhm, I-I mean I have- Well I don’t have to, b-but like- W-Well, I-” Ashley struggled, before a gentle squeeze got her attention.

“Do you really want to go back inside?”

“...No.”  
Chloe smiled slightly, letting the other girl’s hand go as she stood up straight, locking eyes with Ashley.

“Then don’t.”

Ashley was quiet again. Her hand moved on its own, returning the pack to her back pocket before tucking itself under her arm, leaving Ashley looking rather pitiful while words bounced around her head failing to pass her lips. She shuffled, the silence digging into her from inside and drawing a tight grip around her chest. 

“And do...what exactly?” she asked after a while.

“Do you want to walk me home?” Chloe offered. 

“I think I’d like that.”


End file.
